The Palo Alto City Council unanimously rejected a proposal late Monday night to replace the defunct JJ&F Food Store with an untested grocery tenant as part of the so-called College Terrace Centre project.

Council members said they were troubled that information had been kept secret, including the names of industry veterans James Smailey has tapped to ensure the new store, dubbed J&A Family Market, is a success.

"The burden is on the applicant to show us that the proposal will be of the same quality products and services as JJ&F," said Councilman Larry Klein.

"Your insistence on keeping everything confidential makes this really impossible for us to make that determination, so I think that you need to go back and figure out how to do that."

The council approved the development in 2009 with the understanding that John Garcia would keep operating JJ&F Food Store at the site. But the neighborhood fixture traded hands in 2010 and closed for good last year.

In anticipation of that possibility, the council required developer Patrick Smailey, the father of James Smailey, to ensure the project includes a market equivalent to JJ&F as it existed at the end of 2009. The council also gave itself final say over his selection of a grocery store tenant other than Garcia.

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Kristina Lawson, an attorney for the project, said the proposal was redacted in part to protect the identities of people who are currently employed but would go to work for James Smailey.

"It's a land-use matter that's before you," she said. "It's not a personnel matter. It's not a matter of whether you like the operator or not. This is to determine that we're providing an equivalent land use to the city of Palo Alto."

A third-party analysis commissioned by the city manager's office found the proposal up to snuff.

"J&A Family market will be comparable, if not superior, in quality of products and services to JJ&F market," wrote Lawrence J. Brucia, president of Burlingame-based Sutti Associates.

That wasn't good enough for the council.

"We need more information," said Councilwoman Karen Holman. "This is transparency twice removed and that's not what city government is about and not the kind of decision making that we can engage in."

Addressing concerns in the community about his lack of experience, James Smailey said he wanted his store to be as well loved as JJ&F.

"Everybody wants to crucify me because I want to take a shot at this and make it work," he said.

"I don't want to just open the door and put all my time, effort, money into it and then walk away," he continued. "That makes no sense. I have not run a grocery store but I know customer service. I've done lots of customer service jobs and that's what it's going to be all about."